Prosecutor's Office of TK will seek custody for eight suspects who prostituted minors

(Patria) - Eight persons, including four police officers of the Police Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tuzla Canton, were handed over this morning to the jurisdiction of the TK Prosecutor's Office on suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of human trafficking, it was announced from the Prosecutor's Office of Tuzla Canton.

An order for investigation was issued against police officers Besim Kopić (51), Miralem Halilović (46), Jasmin Modrić (30), and Dževad Požegić (55), and against four other suspected civilians – Šemsudin Kadrić (39), Zijad Jagodić (61), Sulejman Šehić (67), and Nedim Avdić (41).

All are suspected of having recruited and exploited two minor girls born in 2009 for the purpose of prostitution from April 2024 to the end of July 2025. According to the Prosecutor's Office, the girls were transported to various locations in the areas of Kalesija, Živinice, and Srebrenik, handed over to other persons, and hidden, while the suspects used their sexual services for monetary compensation.

Part of the money from these services, as suspected, was taken by the primary suspect Besim Kopić. Three other suspects – Jagodić, Požegić, and Avdić – are accused of having used the sexual services of the minor victims of human trafficking, despite knowing they were minors.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, the girls were previously placed in social institutions in the Tuzla area and in the Home for Children without Parental Care, from where they escaped multiple times. The suspects, it is stated, exploited their state of helplessness and difficult family context to recruit and exploit them.

In the operation carried out by investigators of the Criminal Police Sector – Department for Combating Organized and Computer Crime of the MUP of TK, investigative actions and searches were carried out for several months at multiple locations in Kalesija, Živinice, and Banovići.

The Prosecutor's Office will, as announced, submit a proposal to the Cantonal Court in Tuzla for the detention of all eight suspects.

The criminal offense of human trafficking from Article 210.a of the Criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina carries a prison sentence of at least 10 years. The Prosecutor's Office of Tuzla Canton continues investigative actions in this case.